


Accidental Reinforcement

by softerthanstarker



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Peter Parker, Author Can't Tag, Drunk Peter Parker, Fluff, Guilty Tony Stark, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Requited Unrequited Love, maybe some angst?, peter parker flirts a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22083106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softerthanstarker/pseuds/softerthanstarker
Summary: "Here, drink.” Mr. Stark put the cup of water up to Peter’s mouth and tilted it back until Peter had gulped down all of it.“I can drink water on my own. ‘M not a kid anymore,” he said, but he wasn’t really complaining.Mr. Stark cleared his throat and looked away. “Yeah, buddy. I know.”
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 64





	Accidental Reinforcement

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-chap starker fic, so I'd love feedback! Let me know if you enjoy it, hate it, mediocrely enjoyed it- I welcome all (polite) feedback! (Just a note Peter is 19 here).

The first time it happened, Peter could have written it off as an accident. Mr. Stark was tipsy and the atmosphere in the room was unfamiliar to Peter - it was his first time at one of the Avengers’ hang-outs that he had actually been allowed alcohol. 

He had flashed enough puppy-dog eyes at Mr. Stark to break him down to  _ one beer, kid. Any more than that and your Aunt would kill me. _ After all the movie and game nights Peter had been forced to sit through sober while everyone else was drunk, the change was welcome. Cracking jokes with Sam, explaining Snapchat filters to Steve, learning Russian curses from Natasha - it was all more fun buzzed.

Being in his second year of MIT, Peter had been to enough parties to know that he’s a flirty drunk, constantly batting his eyelashes at any man with a beard and strong jawline. If he closed his eyes and tried to imagine someone  _ else’s  _ face every time he got a guy back to his bedroom, that was no one’s business but his. 

It was the same in the compound’s living room - Peter looking for Mr. Stark’s eyes across the room every five minutes only to find that they were already on him. He would smirk and bat his eyelashes, and Mr. Stark would give him an exasperated but fond look, and Peter’s smirk would turn into a real smile which he turned his head down to hide. 

Towards the middle of the night, when people were starting to feel the effects of the alcohol, Peter looked up to see Mr. Stark walking over to him with a cup of water in his hand. He sat down next to Peter, and _apparently_ Mr. Stark didn’t care about personal space when he was drunk either, because Mr. Stark pressed their legs together and slung his arm around the back of the couch, fingers grazing Peter’s shoulder.   
“Hiya, Mr. Stark. Fancy finding you here,” Peter said, and, finding this sentence hilarious in Mr. Stark’s own compound, burst into giggles.

“Hi, kid. Maybe no more beer for you.” Mr. Stark nudged the empty bottle on the table.

“Aw. You’re no fun,” Peter said with a pout.

“I beg to differ. Here, drink.” Mr. Stark put the cup of water up to Peter’s mouth and tilted it back until Peter had gulped down all of it.

“I can drink water on my own. ‘M not a kid anymore,” he said, but he wasn’t really complaining. 

Mr. Stark cleared his throat and looked away. “Yeah, buddy. I know.”

For the rest of the night, Peter set it as his personal mission to flirt with Mr. Stark as much as possible. He reasoned that he could always blame it on the alcohol or say that it didn’t mean anything. Then again, he was growing up, he could flirt with men 30 years his senior if he wanted to. He was a  _ legal adult _ . And if he wanted to go to the kitchen’s candy stash and take out a lollipop, and proceed to suck on that lollipop in the common room trying to get Mr. Stark’s attention, he could do that too. 

That’s what he was doing at the moment Mr. Stark winked at him. He was sitting at the end of the couch, cross-legged, licking a strawberry flavored lollipop and watching Natasha and Clint reenact one of their many stories clumsily. After Natasha almost fell over, the entire room burst into laughter, and Peter snuck a glance at Mr. Stark to find the man staring at his mouth. When Mr. Stark realized Peter was looking at him, he startled looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a half second, before he met Peter’s eyes and winked before turning back to Natasha and Clint.

It wasn’t a playful, friendly wink, but rather one that came with a smirk that made Peter tingle all over. It made him feel wonderful for the rest of the night - until he started to sober up, was sent home with Happy after forcing Mr. Stark to promise that they could tinker in the lab tomorrow, and was promptly left to rethink the night in his dorm room bed alone where he realized with wide eyes that Mr. Stark  _ had winked at him while he was sucking pornographically on a lollipop.  _

It made the crush he had had for years resurface, the real, honest-to-god,  _ I want to marry you  _ kind of crush. No matter how much he masked his feelings with flirting and humor, he really did  _ like _ Mr. Stark. The flirting was a habit he’d fallen into years ago. It let him express his want without actually  _ expressing _ it. He could make dirty jokes and comments to his mentor, who would just assume that Peter was growing up and exploring the limits of his flirty personality, while scratching that itch Peter had every time he saw the man. He had never expected Mr. Stark to flirt back; there had always been an obvious line, and Mr. Stark got dangerously close to it tonight. The whole thing gave Peter a thrill.

He was shaken out of his daydreams by his phone buzzing with a text from Mr. Stark asking if he’d had fun tonight.

**_Peter_ ** _ : ofc. it’s always fun to see clint and thor fight over who’s right about something neither of them are right about _

**_Mr. Stark:_ ** _ Good. I’m glad. We might have to work on what constitutes entertainment for you, though. _

**_Peter:_ ** _ lmao _

**_Peter:_ ** _ what are we working on tomorrow?  _

**_Mr. Stark:_ ** _ One second. _

Peter did  _ not _ expect his phone to vibrate with a call, causing him to drop his phone on his face with an  _ oof _ . He answered the call and put the phone on speaker, setting it down and sitting up straighter even though he knew Mr. Stark couldn’t see him.

“H- hey, Mr. Stark. What’s up?”

“Hate texting you, kid, with all your zoomer crap. Capitalize, for God’s sakes,” Mr. Stark said, though Peter sensed a smile.

“Aw, you don’t really hate it, do you?” Peter asked, teasing.

“No comment,” Mr. Stark said quickly. “Anyways, I want to work on your bot.” Peter beamed at the mention of his project. When he was younger and only starting to work with Mr. Stark, he had proposed the idea of giving Friday a small body. After he got his acceptance letter from MIT, Mr. Stark said they could start working on it. Peter knew the man was only humoring him with the project. Friday much preferred to stay disembodied, and they both knew that if either of them set their mind to it, the bot could be finished in a week.

It became a sort of busy work to them both; an excuse to spend the day at the lab with no real purpose, letting them talk and blow off steam by building or destroying things. Recently it had formed into meaning Mr. Stark just wanted Peter around.

“I’m really tired,” Peter warned, “but you can keep bouncing ideas off me.”

It lasted for less time than Peter thought, as he was lulled off to sleep almost as soon as the man started talking. He just wasn’t expecting Mr. Stark to still be on the phone when he woke up.

**Author's Note:**

> Meet me on tumblr here! Thank you to my lovely beta.


End file.
